A non-conformity flight

Homeward bound, I had a pleasure of a 5:00 a.m. boarding one of the American airways serviced to the U.S. via Narita, Japan. It seemed to be a no complaint flight judging by experience I had on the way to Bangkok. I did not expect anything different on this one.

Well, I was a bit surprise.

Things were going smooth from BKK to NRT on an airbus craft. Five minutes into an old Boeing 747 I was informed by the captain it was going to be a bumpy ride. When I flied I always chose the aisle seat to be able to get out often for the restroom. My seat was five rows from the back of business section. The captain said he was going to put the seat belt sign on for about three hours until it was clear of hurdles.

A conformist I am, I was sitting tight in my seat and of course with seat belt on. At regular situation I would also locked my seat belt no matter the captain has asked or not, just because I hate to be waken up by a flight attendance during the turbulence. I’ve seen some passengers from behind my seat making their visits to the restroom in front of us getting ready for a long sit still.

Then when things got quiet down I realized I should make a similar visit too. Unlocked my belt and walked up to that restroom behind business class, there was coming a well aged lady attendant making a jester and words, "Sir, you should go back to your seat". “I need the restroom,” I said. “I know,” she exchanged with a tone of authority. “But the seat belt sign is on.”

Afraid to be called a non-conformist, I turned back to my seat and fasten the belt holding my necessity until a future opportunity late in the flight. My necessity was not an urgent one anyhow.

To my astonishment the same lady came back in a few minutes with a piece of white paper, a letter size, in her hand. She pulled on a curtain to separate the two classes in traveling on airplane, they’re called the zones, and tucked it on. I could see writing in fine ink only that they are in English and Japanese. The wording I could not dole out but was understandable when a lady passenger of an Indian look turned back when she read the sign.

I had no other idea in interpreting the flight attendant act but to remind myself that standard does not always come in single. Not only I should not go to the restroom while the seat belt sign is on, but also I should not use the restroom in the frontal class when I was in a behind class. Not even when my seat was just a few feet away from it and many others passengers in my class have used it.

The puzzle came to me that was I being objected to as a non conformist, or myself was objectionable. It was such a silly question.

For a long time I sat still in my seat while many peoples got up and went to that restroom behind business class section after an announcement from the captain again that the seat belt sign was going to be on most of the time, but passengers could go to the restroom if they made it quick. The consolation came too late, I think, because it was exactly the same idea I was rejected when I got up and walked a short distance to the business class restroom, to make it quick.

To ease my puzzlement I pulled out my camera and took a picture of the white sign on the curtain separating business and economy classes, hopefully to get more details out of the copy for I did not dare to go near that curtain again.

Pretty soon there was an announcement for my section that the ladies could use the restroom in the back of business class section. It was also understandable considered that area was frequent by a team of female attendants.

Finally I decided to get up and walk to the back of the plane when the seat belt sign was not on. A bit surprise one more time when I found one available restroom’s door was broken and wide open. No wonder many people went to the restroom in business class because the necessity relief was in limited supply.

Through the flight I watched a team of lady flight attendants, most of them looked over fifty, working hard and full of efforts. They were trying to make a long flight smooth. I used to see other crews, mostly Asian and younger, did without a sign of struggle. I began to admire these ladies professionalism and took the matter to myself that a sad incident happen because I was at best just too naive .

I tried to enjoy the rest of a flight where movie screen was one large size on the wall for everyone to share, unlike a standard small screen in front of each seat for a passenger to choose the program they like. No matter what my food tray in front of me was crooked and not leveled, plus my earphone were broken twice.

I did not have any complaint for the rest of the flight until we landed at JFK. The usual communication from the captain while the plane was taxiing to its parking spot to remind passenger not to unlock their seat belts before the sign is off. When the sign did go off I was standing ready to disembark the plane. The guy behind me try to push me to walk further to the front and stand waiting in business class section, the one that became almost a forbidden land to me.

All of a sudden, an unexpected announcement came on by the captain. “Sorry folks, you have to go back to your seat." It sounded like he was joking but he was not, "we park in a wrong spot.” “Please go back to your seat. We are going to be towed back out to a right spot.” It was like an anti-climax when everybody was rushing to the exit doors and had to pull back.

But I guest all airline passenger are the conformists, otherwise we would be reading a next day headline news, “Passenger fall off the plane trying to park at JFK”.

Insignificant excursion and a farmer tale.

An unexpected phone talk with an old friend from L.A. led me to an insignificant but satisfactory excursion to the mountainous villages of the Clitys in Garnjanaburi province.

I was at a dinner party celebrating birthday of a senior mentor in Bangkok. The birthday man was a rector of my alma mater, Thammasat University. One junior alumna mentioned Loong Yee as one of our coincidentally favorite older friend. She dialed him right away just to try if the connection was viable. It was, because he happened to be out of his farm at a time. He went to a lower land nearby, where wireless signal was possible.

“Hey Chad, come on over to see me here at Clity,” his voice was loud and full of excitement. After a few minutes of greeting and getting an old buddy relationship reconnected, he let out some words that got me more interesting. “I planted coffee,” he said.

“Oh, really, wow!” I let the jargons described my enthusiasm. It suddenly came to my mind that I got to spend time in a coffee plantation again for the second time. The first one was a long time ago in the South. We spent the nights camping in soaking wet with dews tents under coffee trees. This time would be a bit different.

I took a few hours ride in transporting van to Garnjanaburi and caught another couple more hours van ride to Tongparpoom district where Loong Yee was waiting to pick me up. Then after lunch at a local village headman I climbed on his four wheels drive climbing the mountains of the Clitys.

I was reunited with an old friend who used to have everything in the U.S. and left it all to fulfill his satisfaction in Thailand. What he finally found here is an unfulfilled satisfaction, but more rewarding in his heart. He found himself, and a new expectation.

“Oh, what a man! What has he got? If not himself, then he has not,” the old blue eyes used to sing this encouraging tune for those of us who could not satisfy expectations.

Loong Yee might not be necessarily seeking satisfaction for any expectation. But his decision to come back to Thailand leaving his big grocery business in L.A. and his prominent place in the Thai community was definitely not a sorry one, not at all to him. He’s still striving as strong as a bull pulling big cart.

Loong Yee, or Pi Yee as I knew him before he left Los Angeles, was well known and liked. His success in business must have had less kick for his energy so he could set aside and went to find new excitement in politics of Thailand. He spent many years doing ground works in the elections for his close friend in Garnjanaburi. When he found out Thai politics would never be improved because the players, high or low, always resisted the changes, he moved on to farming, a passion he hasn’t relinquished.

He stayed around mountainous areas in Garnjanaburi for a couple of years before settled in Sungklaburi, an up-most district near the Burmese border. He built a country house there with no intention to set it aside again, not until he found cool weather of the Clitys. “This is my final destination,” he told me he would stay farming there to the end when we sat talking after dinner in dim light hooking up from car battery.

“I do this because it gives me a feeling of fulfillment.” He said pumping his two fists out in front of him. “I feel very proud in myself when I could finish what I wanted to do.” And he would never stop unless he finished. After a balloon heart surgery less than a year ago he’s still full of projects to make coffee farming success, not only for his plantation but for the whole region of Chalae.

“He did not have to do this.” One local village head told me about Loong Yee effort to make planting papaya in the upper Clity successful when most of farming in the area is corn. The Clitys, one Lower and one Upper, are two attached villages in the mountains of Chalae district, Tongparpoom township in Garnjanaburi province of Thailand. It’s only 300 some kilometers from Bangkok in a 700 meters elevation where temperature could go down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and a balmy 70 degrees in summer.

The Clitys were just two unknown mountainous villages on the edge of Tung Yai Naresuan, a huge forestry national park in western Thailand where ethnic Karen live and farm. The lower Clity was in the front page newspaper about five years ago when toxins from a lead mine poisoned local waterhole and killed some villagers. Remaining of toxins are not harmful now but water supply is dwindled because of corn farming took away chunks of forestry.

Loong Yee effort is to persuade the locals to plant sustainable crops so that the forest is not encroached and big trees are not cut down to open up for corn farming. Besides corn farming is cultivated only once a year and made the soil eroded over time. Loong Yee model to plant two friendly crops side by side with big trees will save the soil in long run and farmers can cultivate their crops almost year round. It would bring prosperity to the area. It’s also Loong Yee dream.

When he came to the Clitys five years ago he did not know exactly what his accomplishment would be. He only knew he wanted to be part of the locals who live by thick woods with no electricity, nor wireless signal. He fell in love with the locale and its weather. He built up ten resort style cottages furnished for travelers staying. He has open cottages mostly for friends and family. He was not yet ready for full operation of his home-stay. His attention has been in farming.

He started planting papaya and raising goats. Papaya was going well until the inevitable virus attacked. So did the goats until the tigers attacked. Goat has habit of going around nibbling everything in the neighborhood. The locals hate it. Loong Yee had to put his goats away from the villages and closer to the jungle. It was welcome by the tigers. Pretty soon Loong Yee had to give up his goat altogether. But for the papaya he fought on.

Many farmers in the area includes an adjacent district of Srisawat had to give up papaya farming because of the virus attacks. Others would fight it with antibiotic substances for a month or two before they decided to cut all the crops down. Instead, Loong Yee would increase the doses and their frequency. He kept doing that for three months until he saw new leaves came out.

He became legend for papaya farming in the area. Other farmers then tried to imitate him by going for the exact supply of antibiotics he had used. Only a few succeeded because they did not have determination and endurance like him. The legend now goes, “papaya virus was so stubbornly strong but Loong Yee was tremendously more stubborn.”

Before his fight with the papaya virus Loong Yee was introduced to coffee planting by a neighbor farmer. Loong Sugij is not exactly a farmer. Some would call him a hi-so or rich-man farmer. He’s a successful textile industry owner who has very much interest in coffee. Loong Sugij went to many dois (mountains) in the North where coffee farming are now outstanding. He brought back some Arabica to plant in his land in upper Clity five years ago. Now his coffee is recognized by the president of coffee aficionados association as a good potential.

The president saw healthy coffee in Loong Yee plantation that looked a lot better than Loong Sugij’s. He wanted to cup tasting Loong Yee coffee next year. It is an excitement we talked about most of my three nights stay at the plantation. I tasted Loong Sugij’s coffee from Loong Yee jar. It was as good as a Kawaii’s or Sumatra’s, I certainly believe. There’s no doubt with better condition, coffee from Loong Yee’s plantation would yield higher potential.

It becomes a very tall order for a man who is reaching his seventy.

I have more than encouragement for Loong Yee expectation. Coffee is a second largest commodity of the world trailing behind only oil. Thailand has just emerged into coffee industry when Doi Charng’s coffee was recognized by a German review. Loong Yee said to me he wanted the Clitys to be a significant coffee farming of Thailand. His plan is to produce high quality buds for local farmers and expand coffee farming in the area. His goal is to increase coffee plantation to 500 rais (200 acres) for the next five years.

He wants the locals to use his model of combination planting, coffee and papaya or coffee and banana. Coffee will start yielding in three years while papaya and banana will be ready for market in just a year. This model of combo farming would give enough income to farmers to keep going after twelve months. All local farmers would prosper by his model.

It seems like high hope of a dreamer if you are talking about it in classroom or coffee bar. But we were talking about this in a plantation where I could see red and green of coffee beans and papaya fruits juxtaposing under the warm sun and in cool breeze of upper Clity.

One would be a rag not to hope and dream in such environment.